Using International Standard ISO/FDIS 15592^[1] Department of Health commissioned Arista Laboratories Europe to acquire, manufacture and machine smoke articles for the five top selling brands of fine cut tobacco on sale in the UK (covering 96.6% of the UK market). The original methodology^[2] called for a matrix of 4 articles to be made using two weights of tobacco and two standard papers pre-formed into tubes. For this study, one matrix point (the "B" paper formed into a 5.2 mm tube with 400 mg tobacco) was used. Previous studies, using the public^[3], had determined that this point is the most representative for the UK type of use. The nicotine values across the different brands ranged between 0.79 and 1.27 mg/FCSA. NFDPM's ranged between 11.7 to 14.3 mg/FCSA. The high yields are in part due to the variation inherent in "hand made" articles as opposed to machine made cigarettes. Within each brand of tobacco it was noted that the variation in smoke yields was greater than that normally found within brands of machine manufactured cigarettes. This variation in yields was found to be in values determined by the tobacco manufactures.

^[1] ISO/FDIS 15592-3 Fine-cut tobacco and smoking articles made from it - Methods of sampling, conditioning and analysis - Part 3: Determination of total particulate matter of smoking articles using a routine analytical smoking machine, preparation for the determination of water and nicotine, and calculation of nicotine-free dry particulate matter
^[2] CORESTA Bulletin, 1999-2000, Roll-Your-Own Report
^[3] KG Darrall & JA Figgins, Tobacco Control 7, (2), 168, 1998